I’ve asked for permission to come in to work early, with an extended lunch break. For a while now, I’ve been pondering how to get more exercise into my schedule. But this also likely means not updating this blog as often.
I currently go in late, and stay a little late, so as to be able to do server maintenance tasks after business hours. From there, I have places I go every evening, that I don’t want to give up. There was also the worry that doing a nice amount of exercise late in the evening would make it harder to get to sleep. Exercise (I expect) will energize me, as I bring up my level of activity. Currently, I’m quite sedentary, and have gained a lot of weight over the last year or so.
There for a while, I was going to the gym before work. I had a personal trainer, which didn’t work that well. The guy was great; but, there was a mismatch between what I wanted and what he provided. I wanted to lose weight. That means cardiovascular exercise, right? Treadmill, swimming, elliptical, rowing machine, etc. I am sure there is nothing more boring for a trainer than to stand there and watch someone walking on a treadmill. It also doesn’t justify the price being paid for training. For some strange reason, my trainer was putting me through strength training (mostly), and although my heart rate would be somewhat elevated, I really wasn’t losing any weight.
My finances got thin, so I dropped my trainer (and gym membership). Ultimately, this (and paying off another bill) did reverse my course from being in the red monthly, to being in the black, monthly.
I could start going to the gym every morning, again. I checked out another gym (far closer to my home), but their payment scheme shenanigans were completely stupid, so I didn’t sign up. Turns out, it’s been four months, and that gym just closed it’s doors. Glad I didn’t sign up and pre-pay for the entire year
If I don’t get the lunch break for going to the gym, then I will do the morning work out. But what I really want, is to go in to work early, take a lunch break at 11:00 AM, and then work out for an hour, clean up, get a light lunch, and get back to work by my normal 2:00 PM.
As soon as I switched to the late shift, I started missing out on the morning status meeting. It’s still a problem today, if I do something late at night, and no-one gets to know the situation until 9:00 AM when I get in.
I listed to a podcast, where Scott Adams of Dilbert fame was interviewed. Mr. Adams made an interesting observation of his own physiology: he is most creative in the morning, and uses some time after that for exercise. This would actually fit me pretty well. A lot of what I do is programming, so first thing in the morning, I’m burning brain sugar like mad. But then I run out, and hit a lull in my productivity. That would be a perfect time to go to the gym: no thinking required for walking a treadmill. I could also listen to podcasts, which I like doing. The exercise would likely energize me, so my afternoon would probably be productive, too.
But here, doing my lunch time blog, would definitely take a hit.